It's easy to be overlooked when you die within a few days of Steve Jobs, but my props to Al Davis too. Beginning with his opportunistic abandonment of Oakland to Los Angeles in 1983 (I was a season ticket holder then and that was painful, and my connection to professional football never really recovered) ... and followed by his expensive return to Oakland 12 years later,.destroying the Coliseum as a baseball venue and eventually suing the City because he couldn’t sell ticket... and finishing with his truly curmudgeon like ownership of the last ten years....it is easy to forget Al’s many preceding years of superb progressive ownership...anointing the first Black and Hispanic coaches and the first woman top dog in the front office. It is impossible to look at the Raiders of today, with their anemic teams and ferocious fans and know the Raiders of old where the players were ferocious and the fans enjoyed the big band music of Del Courtney playing on the sidelines. Right or wrong, Al could care less what a player did in his off time as long as a was sober (enough) to play his heart out on Sunday. There were no metro sexual dapper dan dancing the Argentine Tango on reality TV. Honestly, watching Blanda, Stabler, Biletnikoff, Tatum and the rest, even Ray Guy, was heaven, just perfect. That’s the Al Davis I remember.
Thank You Steve
October 6th 11:03
Dear Steve:
There are a few things I didn’t have a chance to tell you before your death.
Thank you for my iphone...all four of them and the fifth I will buy in a few days. There is no purchase I have ever made, not even the porche of my younger days that has delivered more usefulness in more ways. I do get that the iphone is the result of the effort of many but that it is what it is largely because of your unique genius.
And, thank you for the last few years and the quiet dignity and courage that you brought to to your disease and your death. You were an inspiration in your life and death.
Although anticipated your death hit me much harder than I expected. Much like John Lennon whose death was a surprise. I had thought that my reaction to John's death has more to do with its suddenness. But now I realize that this feeling is one that is while public, but more personal, and one I reserve for cultural icons whose life work made my life better.
I did not know you Steve. You made a difference, a big one and I thank you. Rest in Peace.
Peter Stanwyck
Slow and Steady Wins The Race
March 22nd 6:40
While I still believe that the country would have been far better off with a health care resolution 9 months ago, I must give President Obama props for making true the proposition, slow and steady wins the race. Until a month or so ago, health care reform seemed rudderless. And while the opposition was unrelentingly oppositional, that was clear from early on and one sided post-partisanship is about as useful as one hand clapping....in the end, HE DID IT, when many strong and more experienced presidents who preceded him, failed. BO is starting to seem more like Give em Hell Harry Truman than kill me with love, Jimmy Carter. Whether we think the new law is too much or too little, or just right, leaders lead and accomplish and that is what we saw last night. I am both a history and a news junky..and last night was perfect. Give em Hell Barack.
